1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ammunition cartridge storing and loading tools for firearms magazines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Despite the advancements in ammunition magazine technology, many contemporary magazine designs are still prone to having their components worn down and soiled from usage and exposure to an outdoors environment. A worn down and soiled magazine can cause malfunctions within firearms.
One problem with many contemporary magazine builds that lead to firearm malfunctions is porous design. Openings within a magazine often allow dirt and moisture from an outdoors environment access to ammunition stored within the magazine. Dirt and moisture that clings to ammunition can eventually be transferred to a firearm's action, where it has the potential to delay or jam the firearm's operational cycling, consequently causing a malfunction.
Though the issue of porous design has been remedied with certain newer magazine designs, older legacy designs still suffer from this issue. For this reason, storing ammunition cartridges within porous magazines that are regularly exposed to outdoors environments is a potential liability to the proper functioning of a firearm.
Another problem with many contemporary magazine builds that leads to firearm malfunctions is weakened magazine spring tension caused by the long term compression of a magazine's spring. Magazine springs are commonly subjected to long term compression when magazines are stored with cartridges for an indefinite period of time. Long term compression can cause a magazine's spring to partially set in a compressed state, reducing its responsiveness and the return force by which it can convey its cartridges to a magazine's feed opening for loading into a firearm's chamber. A spring's reduced response in conveying cartridges to a magazine feed opening can cause a firearm to fail in acquiring a cartridge from the magazine during its chambering cycling, producing a feed malfunction. Therefore, storing cartridges within a magazine for an extended period can be a liability to the proper functioning of a firearm.
One alternative to storing cartridges within a magazine, so as to maintain them from dirt and moisture and prevent reduced magazine spring responsiveness, is to store them in a magazine speed loader; loading the cartridges from the speed loader into a magazine when they are needed for use in a magazine. Unfortunately, the problem with this alternative is that current speed loading tool designs are porous and do not maintain cartridges from dirt and moisture, as they are not designed to store ammunition cartridges for indefinite periods of time in non-sterile environments.
Another alternative to storing cartridges within a magazine, so as to maintain them from dirt and moisture and prevent reduced magazine spring responsiveness, is to store them in a watertight box and transfer them from the box into a magazine when they are needed for use in a magazine. Unfortunately, the problem with this alternative is that if the transfer of cartridges from a watertight box into a magazine were to take place in an outdoors environment, dirt and moisture from the environment or from an operator's hands can bond to cartridges as the cartridges are transferred into the magazine.
At the moment, there are no practical prior art means for sterilely and indefinitely storing ammunition cartridges in an outdoor environment that allows for the reliable and dirt free transfer of cartridges to a firearm.